Paradox Rift: the most expensive Pokémon cards

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Paradox Rift came out on 3 November 2023 and it is the set of the ancient and future Pokémon. Nearly three years on it is also the strangest set in the Scarlet and Violet block, for a reason that only shows up once you line the numbers up: it has no card that dominates.

The most expensive one, Altaria ex (#253), is worth 61.54 €. It is the only set in the block whose top card sits under a hundred euros, and where the top three are just 26% of the total.

We ran every card in the set through the DarkDex pricing engine and sorted by value. These are real single-card prices, Near Mint, the lowest available across sellers, updated on 21 August 2026. Graded copies are excluded: a slabbed card follows a separate market.

In short. Paradox Rift is the most balanced set in the block: Altaria ex (#253) at 61.54 €, Groudon (#199) at 48.64 € and Garchomp ex (#245) at 34.52 € are together only 26% of the set. Completing it costs around 550 €, the second lowest figure in the group. Prices as of 21 August 2026.

The ranking: the 15 most expensive cards

This is the full ranking down to 9 euros: every card in the set worth more than that.

1Altaria exSpecial Illustration Rare · #253€61.54

2GroudonIllustration Rare · #199€48.64

3Garchomp exSpecial Illustration Rare · #245€34.52

4Roaring Moon exSpecial Illustration Rare · #251€29.55

5SteelixIllustration Rare · #208€18.26

6Golisopod exSpecial Illustration Rare · #246€16.27

7Iron Valiant exSpecial Illustration Rare · #249€15.21

8PlusleIllustration Rare · #193€15.21

9Tapu Koko exSpecial Illustration Rare · #247€15.19

10MinunIllustration Rare · #194€14.21

11Gholdengo exSpecial Illustration Rare · #252€13.21

12YveltalIllustration Rare · #205€10.15

13MagbyIllustration Rare · #186€10.15

14MorpekoIllustration Rare · #206€9.15

15Iron Hands exSpecial Illustration Rare · #248€8.79

Fifteen rows, and the difference against the other sets is immediate: there is no collapse. You go from 61 € down to 9 € on a gentle slope, without the vertical drop between first and second card that defines Destined Rivals or Twilight Masquerade.

These are the cards people buy boxes for. Add them to your collection on DarkDex and track their value day by day, without redoing the maths every time the market moves.

Which is the rarest card in Paradox Rift?

The rarest card in Paradox Rift is Reversal Energy (#266), the last numbered card in the set, a gold Hyper Rare. It is worth 1.96 €.

The most expensive is Altaria ex Special Illustration Rare (#253) at 61.54 €, thirty-one times as much. The block's rule applies here too: declared rarity tells you how hard a card is to find, price tells you how many people want it. And in a set without a strong mascot, the card that wins is the one with the better artwork.

Pull rates are not published, so there is no official answer, and price remains the only measurable indicator.

The chase cards of Paradox Rift

There are four chase cards, and the second is a surprise:

1. Altaria ex (#253), Special Illustration Rare: 61.54 €
2. Groudon (#199), Illustration Rare: 48.64 €
3. Garchomp ex (#245), Special Illustration Rare: 34.52 €
4. Roaring Moon ex (#251), Special Illustration Rare: 29.55 €

Groudon (#199) is not a Special Illustration Rare: it is a plain Illustration Rare, the tier below, and it still beats every Special in the set bar one. Its base print (#093) costs 0.11 €. Between the two there are 442 times.

Add them to your collection on DarkDex and follow the value day by day.

The set where Illustration Rares beat the Specials

Looking at the ranking, seven cards out of fifteen are Illustration Rares, not Special Illustration Rares. That proportion does not show up in any other set in the block.

The most telling case is Plusle (#193) at 15.21 € and Minun (#194) at 14.21 €, two Pokémon nobody plays, illustrated together on twin cards that sell for almost the same price. People who want them want the pair, and the market knows it.

The reason is structural: Paradox Rift has no signature Pokémon. There is no Charizard, no Pikachu, no Team Rocket. When the name that pulls is missing, what is left is the artwork, and this set's Illustration Rares are well made.

For collectors that is good news: no 600 € card means the set closes without an off-the-scale expense.

The versions of Altaria ex

Altaria ex exists in three prints inside the same set:

• base print (#140): 0.11 €, the one that comes out of ordinary packs
• Ultra Rare full art (#232): 1.89 €
• Special Illustration Rare (#253): 61.54 €, the most expensive in the set

From first to last there are 560 times the difference. Value does not live in the creature, it lives in the print: collector number, rarity and finish. Which is why DarkDex keeps the price of every single variant separate instead of lumping them under one name.

Garchomp ex has four of them, from 0.42 € to 34.52 €, and Roaring Moon ex covers the same arc from 0.11 € to 29.55 €.

How much it costs to complete Paradox Rift

Buying every card in the set at the lowest Near Mint listing, one by one, takes around 550 €. For once the distribution is not extreme:

• the top three cards cost 145 €, which is 26% of the total, the lowest share in the block
• the top ten reach 269 €, or 49%
• the median card is 0.11 €
• 197 cards out of 266, 74% of the set, sit below one euro

Translated: here the set without its top ten cards still costs 281 €, more than half the total. In every other set of the block that figure lands between 10 and 20%. Paradox Rift is the set where the bulk of the spend is spread out rather than concentrated.

Worth saying that this is a theoretical floor: minimums from different sellers, shipping excluded, counting only the 266 cards that have at least one listing.

Where Paradox Rift sits in the Scarlet and Violet block

We ran eight sets of the Scarlet and Violet block through the pricing engine, so the comparison can be made on numbers rather than impressions:

The "cards" column counts the cards in the set with at least one Near Mint listing, not the number printed on the back of the pack.

Paradox Rift is the second cheapest set to complete, despite being second largest by card count. It is the exact opposite of Destined Rivals, which has fewer cards and costs three times as much.

For collectors the meaning is practical: this is a set you actually finish. There is no single card that costs as much as everything else, so the finish line stays reachable all the way instead of stalling on one piece.

Singles or packs?

Paradox Rift has two different Elite Trainer Boxes, one with Iron Valiant and one with Roaring Moon: they cost 55.64 € and 70.54 €, and the only difference is the artwork on the box. The Booster Box sits at 165.64 €.

550 € buys the whole set in singles. The same money buys three boxes and change, which statistically will not produce the complete set: commons repeat, and the fifteen cards in the ranking stay a lottery. Packs are for opening, singles are for completing.

Heads up. Card prices move constantly, and chase cards are the most volatile of all: the numbers in this article are a snapshot of the market on 21 August 2026.

How to keep an eye on the value

On DarkDex you add your Paradox Rift cards to your collection and the market value updates itself, with price history and your portfolio total always in view. It works with any language and any condition, not just English cards.

The same ranking exists for the other sets in the block: Destined Rivals (the priciest of the group), Surging Sparks, Twilight Masquerade, Journey Together, White Flare, Black Bolt and Paldea Evolved.